Day 1 Survivors

Today, Kaytlin and I had the privilege of meeting an amazing group of young survivors!! They range in age from 5 to 19 years old. Several have at least 1 parent alive but that parent is either an alcoholic or caught up in a depressive state because of their poor circumstances. This leaves the children to fend for themselves day and night surviving the harshest of winters with temps well below zero for 3-4 months. They do not attend school and wander daily in search of someone to care for them and someone to feed them. They show up twice a week to the community center where Kate and I are sorting through all the bags. A few young students, who come from very poor families themselves, recognized the need for these children to be loved, fed, and taught about the unconditional love of God, a father that loves them no matter what their circumstances. Kate and I were both immediately drawn to the youngest and most vulnerable little boy. He has dark eyes that tell many stories, scratches and scars all over his face and body and his clothes were filthy yet none of that mattered. He was first to arrive at 11am for a 2pm lunch that the center provides. He was very curious as to all we were doing, wandering and peeking at the 100 matchbox cars that lined the table as we were making goody bags.....I took his hand and put a green sports car in his hand and touched his tummy as to say, it is yours...we saw the biggest smile ever. Then I took it and sent it racing across the floor and we almost heard a giggle....to us it is a 77cent matchbox car but to him it is a million dollar sports car....this is why we are here, to bring smiles!

With the help of the staff, we sized and fit all the street/vulnerable kids that arrived giving them jackets, snow pants, gloves and hats. For those that we did not have the right sizes, we are shopping this afternoon and will give out everything on Thursday afternoon at a special lunch that your donations will provide.

Sorry for the delay in posting and for the lack of pictures, I am having major computer problems and am unable to download pics right now. I will try to post pics from the orphanage later today.

We are being picked up at 10....and will visit 2 government run orphanages. One houses infants and special needs children and the other school age children 4-7. Seth lived in both of these and we have many friends that have adopted children from these 2 places. We are bringing many gifts on behalf of the families and will ask the directors how we can help them meet needs for the harsh winter. Then we will be buying bulk quantity of snow pants and winter coats at the black market...pray we find what we need quickly as it is below zero and an outside market. I am not sure how these kids survive this weather....they are truly survivors!!

From Mongolia,
Stacy & Kaytlin